


petrichor (two idiots in the rain)

by aloeverava



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: :), Angst with a Happy Ending, Friends to Lovers, Gay Panic, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, One-Shot, Sickfic, dialogue prompt, rip tsukki, so much gay panic, two stupid boys in love, yamaguchi really likes the rain, yamatsuki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24329113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aloeverava/pseuds/aloeverava
Summary: It wasn’t just standing in his backyard in the pouring rain that filled him with joy. It was standing in his backyard in the pouring rain withTsukkithat made his heart swell.“Why’re you smiling like some maniac?” He asked, his expression unreadable.“Nothing,” Yamaguchi laughed in reply, shaking his head. “Nothing.”Dialogue prompt #74: "You need medicine."
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 16
Kudos: 203
Collections: ☆彡 ask box fics





	petrichor (two idiots in the rain)

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy some yamatsukki!
> 
> also, this is cross-posted from my tumblr! i'm hairbleachwhore on there :)

_**11:43 AM, 6 years ago today. Yamaguchi’s house.** _

Yamaguchi Tadashi loved the rain.

Everything about it was just so cathartic and beautiful, it was hard for him to resist running outside at the first darkening of the clouds. He’d spend every rainstorm laying in his backyard if it weren’t for the strange looks his parents and neighbors gave him. 

Once, when he and Tsukki were kids, Yamaguchi had dragged both of them outside in the midst of a thunderstorm. The air was sticky with humidity but the sweet smell of petrichor negated Yamaguchi’s discomfort.

Tsukishima, who couldn’t have cared less as long as his favorite dinosaur t-shirt didn’t get wet, obliged given the condition that Yamaguchi at least let him put on his raincoat and boots on first. Yamaguchi practically vibrated with excitement as he urged Tsukki to _hurry_ , _hurry_ , clad in nothing but a tank top and basketball shorts as he itched to open the door.

Tsukishima followed much less enthusiastically behind Yamaguchi, muttering a characteristic, “This is stupid.” Maybe it was stupid. Maybe Yamaguchi was crazy. But the moment the first drops of rain hit his skin, he knew he didn’t care.

A smile split his face as he spread his arms and tilted his head back. The wind and rain whipped around him in an oddly soothing cacophony. It was the best feeling in the world, he’d decided.

Yamaguchi turned his head to the side, feeling a pair of eyes on his. Rain-speckled glasses concealed those eyes, and Yamaguchi had a sudden urge to wipe them clean.

“What?”

“You’re looking at me.”

“I am.”

Tsukki’s affirmation tugged at something in his chest. Then he realized. At the ripe age of ten years old, he didn’t quite understand it, but he suddenly knew.

It wasn’t just standing in his backyard in the pouring rain that filled him with joy. It was standing in his backyard in the pouring rain with _Tsukki_ that made his heart swell.

“Why’re you smiling like some maniac?” Tsukki asked, his expression unreadable.

“Nothing,” he laughed in reply, shaking his head. “Nothing.”

* * *

_**5:13 AM, Karasuno High’s gym.** _ ****

The ball hits Yamaguchi’s hand with a satisfying smack, arcing through the air just where he wants it— no, it’s going to hit the net—  
  
“It’s over!” Tanaka calls from the opposing side, diving for the ball. He’s a split second too late, though, and in the blink of an eye, the ball hits the ground. Yamaguchi smiles a little in self-satisfaction, but still wishes the serve had gone a bit more smoothly.

“Gahhh!” the second-year yells, gripping his head in frustration. Noya runs over to slap him on the back, laughing.

“Hey, nice serve, Yamaguchi!” Tanaka says suddenly, perking up and flashing his underclassman a thumbs-up. Similar replies echo around the gym, Daichi giving him a solid pat on the shoulder.

“Oh. Th-Thanks,” Yamaguchi breathes, flustered by the sudden praise.

“One more time!” Suga calls.

He focuses his attention back to the ball, steadying himself to serve again. He breathes in, then out. In once more, then tosses the ball—  
  
A rumble of thunder shakes the gym as Yamaguchi’s dominant hand hits the ball. He can’t track its progress because the lights flicker once, twice, then go out.

Dark clouds blanket the sky; the windows offer no light. The entire gym is plunged into pitch black darkness. The team erupts into chaos.

“Demons!”

“Oi, let go of my leg, Hinata!”

“A-Asahi-san? Could you let go of me?”

“Kiyoko-san!”

“Now, now, it’s just rain, everyone calm down—”

“The ball hit me in the head!”

“Shut up!”

“That’s my foot, dumbass—”

“OI! Get it together!” Coach Ukai bellows.

Everyone’s head swivels simultaneously to squint at his phone’s flashlight. The coach pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing. He motions to Takeda-sensei, who clears his throat.

“It’s alright, everyone. The generator should kick in soon. In the meantime, between myself, Coach Ukai, Kiyoko-kun, and Yachi-kun, our phone flashlights should last us until then. We probably shouldn’t continue practice to be safe, so everyone should just…” he trails off awkwardly, squirming under the gaze of his students slightly. “Er, Ukai-san, you’re sort of pointing the flashlight in my eyes,”

“Oh! Sorry, right,” He says, quickly redirecting the flashlight.

“You guys heard Takeda-sensei!” Daichi affirms, taking on his “listen to me, I’m captain” air. “Stay calm and don’t cause a ruckus. The power will be back on soon and you’ll only hurt yourselves if you try to practice right now. Let’s all just be patient,” He says, sending pointed looks towards the underclassmen.

And so they wait, huddled around Coach Ukai’s phone flashlight. Someone suggests they tell ghost stories, the light illuminating their faces from below giving the appearance of a fluorescent campfire. Suga goes first, recounting a story about an evil volleyball captain who spitroasted his kouhai over a bonfire because they fought with each other too much. Yamaguchi snickers and Tsukki rolls his eyes beside him as they watch Hinata and Kageyama blanch.

When Coach Ukai’s phone reaches twenty percent, they switch to Kiyoko’s.

“U-Um, shouldn’t everyone get their stuff from the club room now? I-I mean, the generator doesn’t seem like it’s going to come on anytime soon, and everyone probably needs to call their parents since it’s almost seven…” Yachi chimes in, speaking more to Kiyoko than the team as a whole.

The rest of the team nods in agreement, so Takeda-sensei and Ukai decide to wait until the downpour has let up a bit. When it finally does, they all crowd around the door, Daichi with his hand on the handle.

“Ready?”

Yamaguchi feels a sudden sense of deja vu. Turning to Tsukishima he says, “Hey, doesn’t this feel familiar?” Tsukki snorts in reply, the smallest resemblance of a smile playing at his face. 

“Maybe.”

The door opens, and all hell breaks loose. Twelve teenage boys run across campus to the volleyball club room, some of them whooping and hollering loudly. It’s a mere thirty or so meters, but the trek doesn’t fail to soak each one of them to the bone. Lightning dances across the sky, and Yamaguchi counts just two seconds before he hears the deafening roar of thunder; the storm is right above them.

They’ve almost reached the staircase to the second floor of the club building. Yamaguchi pauses just before the awning, which the rest of the team rushes under, crying with relief at the sight of cover.

“Yamaguchi?” Tsukki asks, turning to watch him. He stands under the rain, wet hair sending rivers of water down his eyes and mouth, smiling. He can’t fucking help it. “The hell are you doing? C’mon, let’s go inside,”

Yamaguchi, however, has other plans. Laughing with unabashed glee, he grabs Tsukki’s hand and pulls him out from under the awning. The other lets out a “Yamaguchi, no,” which he pretends not to hear over the rain.

“This is stupid,” Tsukki says, tugging back on the brunette’s hand. But the motion yields an unintended effect, the momentum combined with the ground’s slickness sending them sprawling into the grass.

Somehow, Yamaguchi ends up on top of Tsukki, arms held out to prevent himself from falling face first onto the blonde. The smile is suddenly gone from his face as he takes in the sight below him.

Tsukishima’s glasses are pushed into his hair, which is a few shades darker now that it’s damp. His lips are parted in surprise. Yamaguchi faintly wonders if they’ve always been that shade of pink. He stares back at Yamaguchi, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he thinks he should pull away, that they’re too close.

But he can’t. He’s trapped memorizing every perfect feature of Tsukki’s face. Lightning briefly illuminates his face, and Yamaguchi is in awe of how he look so familiar and perfect and good all at once.

The spell is broken when Tsukki flinches, a drop of water from Yamaguchi’s hair falling onto his forehead. They both scramble away from each other, as if burned. _What the hell was that?_ Yamaguchi thinks.

“Oi! Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, you guys okay?” Their heads jerk up to see Suga, still dripping wet, leaning out of the club room door.

“Yeah, just slipped!” Yamaguchi shouts, answering for the both of them. Tsukishima is already making his way towards the stairs, not having said a word. Before he follows after him, Yamaguchi spares one more glance up at the door. He swears he can see Suga grin maniacally before retreating back into the club room.

* * *

_**2:30 PM, Sakanoshita Family Store.** _ ****

“Yamaguchi-kun, you don’t look well,” Hinata observes innocently, peering over his notebook to squint at his friend.

Yamaguchi was, in fact, not well. His face was resting on the table, arms cradled around his head in hopes of tuning out the sound and light that seemed to make his head pulse with pain. He peels his forehead away from the cool plastic of the table, waving a hand.

“I’m alright, I’m alright, just tired,” he reassures. “Finish that set of questions,” He says, propping his elbows onto the table, chin in his hands, to look at the two boys sitting across from him.

Truth be told, Yamaguchi was very much not alright. He’d woken up with a runny nose and a slight fever, but got out of bed having promised Hinata and Kageyama a tutoring session. The world had spun a little as he walked to meet them at Sakanoshita store, and his clothes seemed to cling to his skin with how hot it was, even in the middle of February. No doubt this was what he got for falling asleep in his backyard when he got home after practice yesterday. Of course, he wouldn’t let his mistake rob his friends of a much-needed tutoring session.

“Are you sure?” Kageyama chimes in, brows furrowed. “We can always call Yachi-san instead,”

“No, really, I’m fine, guys! Yachi-san is probably busy, too, y’know. I wouldn’t want to bother— Achoo!”

Kageyama shakes his head, pulling out his phone.

“Oi, Bakageyama, he has a point! We’ll just cancel, we don’t have to call Yachi—”

“I’m not calling Yachi-san, dumbass!” Kageyama fires back, his phone lifted to his ear.

Yamaguchi stares between the two, feeling too tired to process what’s happening. The shouting has increased the dull ache in his head to a hammering thud; he presses the heels of his palms into his temples, hoping to ease the pain.

“Keep it down!” Ukai shouts from the counter, which makes Hinata and Kageyama drop their voices to a whisper-shout.

“Stupid prick won’t pick up,” Kageyama growls.

“Of course not, why would he?”

“Because it’s about Yamaguchi, dumbass!”

“Call me dumbass one more time, _dumbass_ —”

“Guys, please don’t fight, we can just do this tomorrow since it’s the weekend,” Yamaguchi interrupts, holding his hands out placatingly.

Hinata and Kageyama stop, then look from each other, then to Yamaguchi, then back to each other. They nod.

Despite his entire body feeling sluggish and overall just shitty, a bolt of fear runs through Yamaguchi. Nothing the two of them agreed on could be good news.

“Give me your phone, Yamaguchi-kun,” Hinata says.

Yamaguchi obliges, sighing. It was better to get this over with so he could leave sooner than later. He just wanted to go back to bed and take a really, really long nap all of a sudden.

Hinata punches a few buttons before lifting the phone to his ear. Kageyama watches, arms crossed. Yamaguchi is too damn tired to care anymore.

“Tsukishi—”

“You’re not Yamaguchi.” The aforementioned boy perks up immediately, hearing Tsukki’s voice crackle through the phone’s speaker. He shoots Kageyama a confused glance, but the setter’s gaze is trained on Hinata, who flounders for something to say.

“Duh, but, uhhh, this is his phone,” He says lamely.

“Clearly. What have you done with Yamaguchi? I’m not helping you hide the body,” The other deadpans, and Yamaguchi smiles a little when he pictures Tsukki rolling his eyes.

“Oi, listen, just come meet us at Sakanoshita, Yamaguchi isn’t feeling well—”

“And you need a tutor? Not happening.”

Kageyama snarls, snatching the phone out of Hinata’s hands. “You gonna come pick him up or what? He looks like he’s gonna pass out,” He nearly shouts.

Vaguely, Yamaguchi wonders if he should be offended.

“Why can’t you two walk him home?”

“But you’re— he’s— it’s just—” Kageyama looks like he wants to throw the phone across the room. “It makes sense, okay? He’s Yamaguchi. You’re Tsukishima. Who else were we supposed to call, huh?”

The line goes quiet. For a second, Yamaguchi wonders if he hung up.

A beat.

“Is he okay?”

“I’m fi—”

“Runny nose, looks like he hasn’t slept, probably running a fever—”

“Take his temperature.”

Hinata reaches out a hand to do so, only for Tsukishima’s voice to pipe up through the speaker.

“ _Wait_! Don’t—Don’t touch him,” He says, taking them all by surprise.

“The hell do you mean, shitty four-eyes—”

“Just shut up. I’m on my way.”

“Aish, don’t worry about it, Tsukki! I’m fine,” Yamaguchi interjects, loud enough for the microphone to pick up.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi,” Tsukki says, then the line clicks, falling silent.

* * *

**_3:14 PM, Yamaguchi’s bedroom._ **

“You should cut your hair.”

“H-Huh? Why?”

“Because clearly you can’t be trusted to dry it,” Tsukki retorts. “And look where it got you.”

“You sound like— _achoo!_ —an old lady,” Yamaguchi sniffles, though the insult doesn’t pack much of a punch from where he lays, nestled in five different blankets. “And I’m not even sick! It’s just my aller—” He breaks into a coughing fit; during the walk from Sakanoshita back home, his symptoms had seemed to worsen tenfold, which did nothing to help him convince Tsukki that he was fine.

“It’s the middle of February. Your allergies only act up in the spring.”

Yamaguchi only goes “hmph,” partly out of spite and partly because it hurts his throat to talk.

Suddenly, he feels fingers delicately brush his bangs aside. He jumps at first, then unconsciously leans into Tsukki’s palm, closing his eyes. The sensation is welcomed; despite having huddled under his covers and making Tsukki bring him more blankets when he got home, he was burning up. It was like his body was hot and cold all over at the same time.

“Shit,” Tsukki mutters, jerking Yamaguchi out of his spell. He opens his eyes to find their faces only a few mere inches apart, and for some reason, he finds it a little harder to breathe. The sunlight streaming through his bedroom windows bathe Tsukki in a soft golden light, his blonde hair glowing. _Angel_ , Yamaguchi thinks. _He looks like an angel._

It takes him a moment to realize that neither of them has pulled away. They’ve sat there, staring at each other for so long that the forehead on his head is starting to lose its coolness. Yamaguchi wants to speak, to ask what’s going on, but he doesn’t trust himself to open his mouth right now. He finds himself trapped in Tsukki’s eyes, and he feels like he could drown in those hazel pools. If it weren’t for his glasses, he’s sure they would have sucked him in and held him— _Wait, what?_ That was something out of one of his little sister’s romance novels, not what you thought about your best friend.

Yamaguchi’s eyes widen a fraction, lips parting in surprise. He swears he sees Tsukki’s eyes flick down towards his lips, but before he can decide if he’s hallucinating, Tsukki is off of him in a flash, suddenly on the other side of the room.

“You have a fever. You need medicine,” Tsukki says, his words slightly choked. Before Yamaguchi can protest, he leaves, footsteps quickly fading down the stairs.

“Ts-Tsukki—?” Yamaguchi calls, craning his neck after the other.

“Be right back!” He hears the front door open then slam shut.

What the hell just happened?

* * *

Yamaguchi awakes several hours later, exhaustion having won out after Tsukki had been gone for nearly an hour. He finds a water bottle, Tylenol, and a note on his nightstand.

> _Take 2, get lots of rest. See you on Monday._

> _Tsukishima_

* * *

**_1:39 AM._ **

Yamaguchi tries to pop open the microwave door as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake his family. Placing the leftovers in the microwave, he watches the timer carefully, opening the door just as it’s about to beep. He lets out a quiet sigh of relief. Getting food in the middle of the night always filled him with an unreasonable amount of anxiety.

After getting nearly ten hours of rest and taking some medicine, his headache is gone for the most part, he feels less congested, but most of all, he’s wide awake at almost two in the morning. He sighs, poking at the reheated fish. He really wasn’t hungry, he just wanted something to do.

Unconsciously, his mind wanders to Tsukki, replaying the last few days’ events in his head. The striking color of his eyes is the first thing that he envisions, and he finds himself mesmerized even in just the thought of them. A blush rises to his cheeks as he thinks about how stupid this was, daydreaming about his best friend of only God knows how long. He guesses he’s not all that surprised at himself, though. Something had drawn him to Tsukki's side and kept him there all these years— something that was definitely more than just friendship. Maybe his realized feelings have been long coming, but why has it taken him this long? He wonders.

Yamaguchi stares out the kitchen window, watching the silhouettes of raindrops race down the panes. The news had said it was going to rain all week; it must have rained again just before he woke up.

Oh.

Yamaguchi knows why. He doesn’t know how, but the pattern of water droplets on the window seem to spell out the answer for him. He’ll never love you back. Tsukki will never love you back, they whisper. He knows it’s true, so his mind probably figured denying his own feelings rather than Tsukki’s lack of them would hurt less. He sighs, smiling sadly. It was about time he came back to reality, anyways.

A glint of pale yellow catches his eye behind the rain. He squints to see it, making out a blonde head. Speak of the devil. _(Think of the devil?)_

Before Yamaguchi knows what he’s doing, he’s flinging the front door open and shoving on his sandals. Wincing at the cold, he steps outside, only to find Tsukki right in front of him.

“What’re you doing here?” Yamaguchi asks, speaking before he starts staring at the other. Even under the mustard yellow glow of the streetlights, he’s beautiful, he can’t help but think.

“Uh. I was just leaving.” Tsukki says, hands shoved into his pockets. He makes no move to leave, though.

They both stand still, waiting for the other to speak. Their breath comes out in huffs, as if they’ve just run a mile.

“...Want to come in?”

He nods.

Tsukki follows him inside, toeing off his shoes in the spot where he always leaves them— next to Yamaguchi’s on the side with the potted plant. Wordlessly, they walk up the stairs and settle on the floor of Yamaguchi’s bedroom, facing the ceiling side by side. Their arms brush one another’s; Yamaguchi suppresses a shudder.

“This is...” Yamaguchi trails off, suddenly unable to find the right words. He cringes; his voice is deafeningly loud to his own ears. The other only hums in reply. “What’s wrong, Tsukki?”

“Promise you won’t laugh?” Yamaguchi’s eyebrows furrow. That was new. He turns to look at Tsukki, searching for context in his expression. It remains impassive as ever, but with a tinge of melancholy that makes Yamaguchi’s heart ache.

“‘Course.”

“I changed my mind.”

“...About what?” Yamaguchi sits up, propping his body up on one arm to look at the other. Tsukishima does the same, using his other hand to trace patterns in the carpet. He’s silent for a moment. Yamaguchi doesn’t push.

“Don’t cut it,” Tsukki finally says, almost too soft for him to hear.

“What?”

“D-Don’t cut your hair.”

“Huh?”

“I— uh— I like it like that. It’s c-cute.” If Yamaguchi didn’t know him better, he’d say Tsukki was choking. Or having a stroke. Or both. Frankly, Yamaguchi feels like he's about to do the same. Instead, though, he says the second thing that comes to mind.

“That’s why you were sulking on my porch at two in the morning?”

“Yeah— Well, no.”

“Oh.” Yamaguchi watches Tsukki takes a deep breath, looking uncharacteristically troubled.

The silence passes between them as if time is moving through quicksand.

“Have you ever loved someone so much that you’d be okay with it if they hated you?” Tsukki asks, the words coming out in a single breath. He looks at Yamaguchi with those damn eyes of his, boring holes right into his soul. _Yes_ , he wants to say. _Yes, yes, yes the fuck I do know._

He settles for nodding slowly, instead. “Sure. Like, uh, my parents, I guess.”

“Right. Yeah, parents. Yeah.”

“You don’t mean your parents, do you?” He asks softly. Tsukki shakes his head no. “Or your brother?” He says no again. Yamaguchi’s heart suddenly feels like a ton of lead. “S-So, um, you should probably talk about it, then? I mean, that’s what people say, right?”

Even if the thought of Tsukki loving someone drives a knife through his chest, he’ll twist the knife as many times as he needs if it means Tsukki has a shoulder to cry on.

The blond nods. The moonlight spilling through the curtains glints off of his glasses. “It’s so stupid. Feelings are stupid. I just— I hate what it’s doing to me. I can’t stop thinking about them. I get this weird, angry feeling in my stomach when I see them with someone else. I want them to know how much I lo- like them, but I know it’s pointless, they’ll never reciprocate. And-and the worst part is how close we are, how close we are to being there but just not quite… there.”

Yamaguchi wants to sob and scream and tear out his hair and curl up into a ball and sleep all at once. To know that Tsukki would never love him back was one thing, but to even think that he was going through the same pain, worlds away, hurt even more.

“Yamaguchi?”

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me.”

What? He stares at him in open-mouthed shock. Then it dawns on him. He was only a bandaid to fix the bullet wound in Tsukki’s heart. A temporary fix. If that was what Tsukki wanted right now, then so be it.

“...Are you sure?”

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

It happens so fast, he unconsciously thinks it would have hurt the way Tsukki grabbed his face. To his surprise, though, thin, delicate fingers grip his chin gently. His lips are cold, yet soft against his. At first the kiss is awkward, the two of them frozen, lips pressed against each other. In fact, it’s more of a gentle punch in the mouth… with the other’s mouth.

But then Tsukki’s mouth moves against his, and Yamaguchi swears his brain stops working for a second. Tentatively, he kisses back. Oh, is all he can think. This is… right. It’s nothing like what he expects, but there’s something perfect and just meant to be about the way their mouths fit together.

Somewhere along the way, his eyes fluttered shut; the sensation of Tsukki’s lips and his delicate caress cloud his mind, pushing away anything remotely unrelated to the boy kissing him. Even if Tsukki will never love him back the same way, he can relish this moment.

They pull away after a few seconds, though it feels like an eternity.

“I love you,” Yamaguchi blurts out.

Both of their eyes widen comically in surprise, the shock hitting both of them.

And then Tsukki starts laughing.

“I-I don’t know why— Uh- Sorry—?” The brunette sputters, hurt and confusion flashing across his face as Tsukki rolls away from him clutching his stomach. When he turns, seeing Yamaguchi’s expression, he immediately sobers.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.” Tsukki kisses him. Again. And again. And then again, this time on his forehead, then one across his knuckles, then a million more on what feels like every freckle on his face. “I love you too.”

“Oh,” Yamaguchi breathes, the pieces falling into place. “I’m such an idiot,” He blushes, a grin splitting his face. Tsukki hums in agreement, bringing Yamaguchi’s back to lean against his chest. He thinks he might implode from all the affection.

“Yeah,” Tsukki whispers. “You’re my idiot."

**Author's Note:**

> psst. this was, uh, my first try at writing a one-shot. hope ya liked it. leave a kudos or a hate comment or both xoxo
> 
> you can request one-shots with or without prompts on my tumblr!
> 
> tumblr: hairbleachwhore  
> twitter: glutenfreeroach


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